


FF#5: Red-Handed Feelings

by CJ_fics



Series: Olicity Flash Fic Challenge [4]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: F/M, Oliver is in love with Felicity Smoak, olicity - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-23
Updated: 2014-12-23
Packaged: 2018-03-03 01:55:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2833898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CJ_fics/pseuds/CJ_fics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oliver demonstrates his love for Felicity in covert ways. No one was supposed to know how he really felt about her.</p>
<p>Until tonight.</p>
            </blockquote>





	FF#5: Red-Handed Feelings

If Oliver was asked before tonight, he wouldn't be able to tell why his expressions of how much he cared for Felicity came with such guilt. There was something furtive about his actions towards Felicity -- especially the ones that showed the quality of his feelings towards her.   
  
Like how he made sure that he loaded his pockets (coat, jacket, suit, cargo pants) with at least two Epipens just in case she ate something that had nuts in it, accidentally. Like when he learned that she was allergic to nuts, he tried to recall when he last ate something with that ingredient and then when he couldn't, promptly brushed his teeth thrice and then gargled with Extra Strength mouth wash five times. He vowed to never eat any kind of nut since then. And he hadn't.

Not even when Sara cooked pad thai for him one evening as some kind of romantic gesture. Sara thought it was strange that he only ate the side salad she prepared with the pad thai but only after asking her if there were nuts in it as well. When she asked him about his sudden allergy to nuts, he only responded with, "I've developed a dislike for it.".  
  
In his mind, it made sense. If there was one thing he learned in his five years away from Starling City, it was to always be prepared for anything.

What if Felicity accidentally ingested something with nuts and her purse was too far away from her? Solution: Epipen in his pocket.

What if that wasn't enough? Second Epipen.

And if her throat clogged up and she was unable to inhale oxygen? Mouth-to-mouth resuscitation from someone who would not have traces in his mouth of the very thing that caused her to have an allergic reaction in the first place.   
  
He was just being a reliable team mate to Felicity, and keeping his promise to protect her.   
  
He couldn't, however, explain why something so logical had to be kept a secret. Why he felt guilty about it.

At first, he kept this to himself because he didn't want to make Felicity think that she meant more to him than a friend, a team mate, an employee, his IT girl. At that time of the pad thai dinner, he dismissed the guilt as being respectful to Sara as his current lover and girlfriend. It would not bode well for their relationship, it would hurt Sara, and he would be a tool, if he let her and everyone around them know that he took Felicity's nut allergy so seriously. It would have shown such disrespect to the woman he chose to be with, if he exhibited extra care and thought for another woman.   
  
Even though he currently no longer had his relationship with Sara as justification for the need to hide how much he cares for Felicity, the guilt remains. And his secret demonstrations of how much he cared for, even loved, Felicity grew. Or perhaps, more truthfully, his awareness of his actions towards her just became for obvious to him.  
  
Because he's always secretly smelled her hair whenever she was close enough for him to get a whiff of it.

He has always enjoyed touching her (her face, shoulders, arms, elbows, small of her back, shoulder blades, whatever body part he could that wouldn't be inappropriate) but he has always made himself stop from touching her too long.

He has always covertly made sure that she got home safe every night, spending at least 15 minutes outside her apartment, in the building across from it, watching her shadow as she prepared to sleep.

He used his connections and a large donation to Starling City Hospital to get his name on her emergency contact list without her knowledge.

He has always Googled the pop culture references or TV shows she made in conversation when he was alone in Arrow lair or in his QC office.

He has always made everyone they worked with know that her computer set-up in the lair and in the QC office was never to be touched off limits to everyone except Felicity and those that she specifically allowed to handle her babies. But he's never gotten that message across verbally. No, it was more him using his body as a wall against anyone else heading towards that section of the lair until Felicity was seated comfortably in her chair.   
  
Oh, he knew that Diggle knew about some it of it. For sure, the making sure that Felicity got home safe every night was known to Diggle. The older man had always shaken his head, rolled his eyes and smirked whenever Oliver blocked anyone from getting to Felicity's computer station before she got there. And he knew that Diggle caught him sometimes when he closed his eyes to savour the smell of Felicity's rosemary, lemon, mint shampoo.  Diggle knew some of it but not all.   
  
Tonight, Oliver knew that the gig was up.  
  
Felicity was on her third date with Daniel Kord. The first two dates, Oliver watched from across the restaurants where they ate. And watched from his perch on the building from across her apartment when Kord took her home with chaste kisses. He just wanted to make sure that she got home all right.

Whatever feelings he has for her was hidden beneath words of encouragement and support towards her developing relationship with Kord. He was NOT going to get in the way of Felicity's happiness. He would never do that. And if Kord made her happy, then he would be a supportive friend to her and Kord. This was all the more reason to keep how he felt for her a secret from her and everyone else. He would even go as far as walking her down the aisle towards Kord, but he would never ever stop making sure that she got home safe and all the other ways he covertly demonstrated how much he loved her.   
  
Tonight though, Sara was back in town for some down time from League business and wanted to catch up with her family. He had invited her, Laurel, Diggle and Detective Lance to dinner.

_So what, if it was at the same place that Felicity and Kord agreed to have dinner as well?_ He had made sure that they arrived before she and Kord did, so his pleased surprise was genuine. Also, he was sure Felicity would welcome seeing Sara tonight. Felicity wouldn't mind. Especially since their table was from across the room from theirs and her back was to him. He was sure she (or anyone else they knew at the restaurant) was unaware that he spent most of dinner casting surreptitious glances her way. He told himself that he was just making sure that she was OK, and that she was having fun.   
  
It was over dessert that his secret had began to unravel. One of his secret glances towards Felicity's table showed her clutching her throat, coughing and collapsing to the floor, toppling her chair backwards. He didn't know how it happened but he was suddenly across the room, kneeling beside her as she struggled to breathe. He vaguely remembers pushing Kord out of the way.   
  
"Oliver…! Nuts…" she gasped.  
  
He took out one of the Epipens hidden in the inner pocket of his suit. He drew her blue jersey skirt higher up and stabbed her thigh with the Epipen.   
  
"Felicity! Felicity! Diggle call 911!" he stroked the injection point with his hand, soothing the sting. "Felicity, c'mon, open your eyes. Please, please, please .."  
  
She suddenly gasped and took a large mouthful of air. "Oliver!" she coughed, grasping the lapels of his suit jacket.   
  
He held her close to him as she gathered her breath and her wits, closing his eyes as he inhaled the rosemary, lemon and mint of her shampoo, nuzzling his nose in her hair.   
  
"Shh, shh. You're OK, Felicity. You're safe. I won't let anything harm you," he whispered as he continued stroking her thigh.   
  
The moment was broken with the arrival of the medics. But he didn't allow anyone else to carry her out of the restaurant. With a few words to Digg to settle the bill for their dinner, he strode out of the place with Felicity safe in his arms, putting her on the stretcher but keeping his hand on her leg.  
  
"Sir, we need to take her to the ER," one of the medics said to him.  
  
"I know. I'm riding with you. Search her records, I'm her emergency contact." With that, he helps the other medics load her into the ambulance and moves to get in it.   
  
Now, he's sitting in an uncomfortable chair just outside the emergency room, waiting for Felicity to be released, and facing the music. He's still trying to figure out why he feels like he was caught red-handed. Guilty. For tonight. For all of it. He braces himself for questions.   
  
"You carry an Epipen in your pocket?!?! And since when are you Ms. Smoak's emergency contact?" That was Detective Lance. Oliver reckons if anyone was going to start this investigation, it would be the professional.  
  
"At least, two. In every pocket. Since about two years ago," he responds. He's got his arms held akimbo, his head held high but refusing to meet anyone's gaze.  
  
"That pad thai dinner makes sense all a sudden." That's Sara, and he could hear the snort in her voice. He just nods.  
  
"Pad thai dinner?" Laurel clarifies, looking at Sara.  
  
"Yeah, I cooked him pad thai one time. It was the only thing I knew how to cook… He went ballistic. And then he kept asking if anything else I prepared had nuts in it," Sara responds. There's laughter in her voice.  
  
"I did not go ballistic, Sara. So what if I did? What if, Felicity needed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation for any reason? Why would I endanger her further by having the stuff that she's allergic to in my mouth?" Oliver frowns. The idea was preposterous. Also, why was he feeling so defensive?  
  
"Also, it would be really horrible if she went into anaphylaxis when you finally decide to kiss her, no?" That was Diggle and he sounded like he wanted to laugh his head off. Oliver just glares at him. Diggle stares back.  
  
Kord clears his throat but before he can say anything a doctor approaches them and says, "Mr. Queen, Ms. Smoak is about ready to be released. There's no lasting damage though her throat will be sore for a bit. It was fortunate that she got an Epipen shot when she did. You saved her --"  
  
Oliver doesn't bother with the rest of it, standing up and heading for the cubicle where Felicity was rushed to when they got here. He needed to see for himself that she was fine.  
  
"Felicity," he says. "How are you doing?"  
  
She's sitting at the edge of the hospital bed where the doctors looked her over, staring into space.  
  
"You're my emergency contact? You carry an Epipen? Oliver?" she asks.   
  
"Yes," he says.   
  
"Why do you look like you were caught red-handed?" she frowns at him.  
  
"You weren't supposed to find out."  
  
"Find out about what?"  
  
"That I'm irrevocably, unconditionally, wholeheartedly in love with you."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"Because you deserve better, Felicity. Because you deserve to be happy. To be with someone who makes you happy, and didn't break your heart by getting involved with other women, or dying or, being broken beyond repair." There. Clarity, finally. This is why he strove to keep how he felt about her covert. Why expressing his love for her felt like a crime. He was no good for her.  
  
"Well, I think, I deserve to be with someone who makes sure that I get home safe every night. Who uses his connections to make sure that I have an emergency contact. Who charges across a room to save me from nuts with an Epipen he carries around in his pockets. Who secretly smells my hair whenever I get near. Who Googles TV shows I mention in conversation. Who remains my friend even when I'm dating someone else. Who would lay down his life for me. Who--"

"You knew?"

"I'm sure not all of it. But you were always really crap at keeping things from me, Oliver. I somehow, some way always find out. And the hair smelling? Kinda cute. And--"  
  
"Can I kiss you now?" he interrupts with his hands cupping her face, his fingers buried in her hair.  
  
"Have you eaten any nuts lately? Because I don't want to have to go into an allergic reaction again tonight," she smirks.  
  
"No, not since seven months into knowing you. Also, I have another Epipen in my pocket", he smiles adoringly at her.  
  
Her smile is huge. But her only response is get on her tip toes, pull his head towards her and close the gap between their mouths.

**Author's Note:**

> Original post here: http://outoftheclosetshipper.tumblr.com/post/88959289818/ff-5-red-handed-feelings


End file.
